Tuesday-Thursday Sections Schedule, Continued.
Term paper (20%): This will consist of two parts: 1) a bibliography of available sources (due Mar 15; 10% penalty if not handed in, 5 % penalty if late); no more than 50% of your sources may be "Internet" or CD-ROM sources - hard copy books and articles must be at least 50% of your sources; and 2) a "term paper" -- a descriptive and analytical review of one modern country (other than the USA) and its relation to 'democracy' (due Apr 26). All topics (ie, choice of country) must be cleared with the instructor by Feb 15. Do not do any extensive work until your topic is approved. In your paper, historical background is to be no more than 33% of the paper. At least 2/3 of the paper should be a description and discussion of that country's current democratic institutions (or lack of) in theory & in practice. This includes analysis of the country's written constitution, if any. Format details will be handed out later; the paper is not acceptable if the format is not followed.
Discussions & brief papers (15%): Although the Greer text & the instructor will give you some basic historical background for the course, the main objective is to get you to read (& think) widely about the concept of 'Democracy' & the individual rights that we usually associate with that term. Toward that objective you will be reading original documents & statements from the ancient world to the 20th century.
Everyone is expected to read every assignment - and shall be tested on them. You need to write a brief "reaction" paper on 10 of the numbered discussion assignments. The only restriction is a maximum of 1 paper per due date. The paper (typed) will consist of one short paragraph (about 30 words) describing the content of the reading; plus a longer paragraph (about 100-150) words) with your personal reaction to the reading. This must be typed, double-spaced on a single page. Hand in only one page. The papers will not be accepted after the class they are due. You may submit the brief papers via email - as long as they are postmarked prior to the class time. These papers will only be marked OK, OK plus, and OK minus. Each one (of the 10) not satisfactorily completed on time will result in 1 ½ points taken off your semester course grade. In class I expect people to be prepared to comment on, to ask questions about, and to answer questions about all of the assigned readings for that day.
Word processing: written assignments are to be typed using a word processor and saved on a disk. The Academic Computer Center on the 2nd floor of the Gabelli School of Business Building provides free use of PCs with WordPerfect 9. You can arrange a WordPerfect orientation if you are unfamiliar with that program. Whatever program you use must be able to produce papers in the required format.
